From interrupted education to physical and emotional instability: the impact of foster care on a child.

The number of children in foster care in the United States is on the rise and shows no sign of slowing.

A government report at the end of 2017 showed an increase in the number of foster care cases for the fourth year in a row. The total number of children in the system climbed to over 430,000.

While the nation-wide numbers are troubling, the foster care situation in the state of Indiana is becoming a crisis of epidemic proportions.

A state review of Indiana’s Department of Child Services reported that by May of 2018 there were 16,407 Indiana kids in foster care, with children being placed in the system at more than twice the national rate.

These numbers are distressing for many reasons. Most people aren’t fully aware of the realities of foster care, believing that any living alternative is better than a neglectful birth home.

While it’s true that Child Protective Services would never remove a child from their home without good reason, such as abuse or neglect, the unfortunate reality is that life in foster care comes with its own set of challenges and difficult experiences for a child.

The Impact of Foster Care

Every element of childhood is impacted by living in foster care, including both a child’s outer life (home and school) and a child’s inner life (psychological and emotional health).

Here are some of the greatest challenges a child can face when removed from their home and placed in foster care:

Instability

The period of time between leaving a birth home and finding a permanent, adoptive home or returning to their parents is the most tumultuous time in a child’s life.

From lawyers and judges to caseworkers and foster parents, the sheer number of adults in a child’s life balloons while stability vanishes. While having this supportive team of adults is necessary and positive, the team may constantly be in flux, based on resources a child cannot be expected to understand.

Beyond an emotional feeling of instability, children in foster care also face tremendous physical instability.

A child will often be placed in several different foster care homes before finding a permanent adoptive home or being reunified with their parents. This means adjusting to new guardians, a new set of rules, and a new environment each time a child is moved.

It’s not unusual for a child to live in more than four homes during their first year of foster care. This kind of relentless instability means that a child may go to bed at night unsure of where they will end up tomorrow—a feeling that no young person should have to face.

Interrupted Education

Unsurprisingly, such instability at home is very likely to lead to an interrupted education. Every time a child is moved to a new foster care home, there’s a chance they may have to move schools as well.

Frequent moving of schools has a negative impact on a child’s education. On average, each time a child moves schools they lose three to six months of academic progress.

This is because not every school may have the same curriculum or teaching style. Just as every foster care home will have different rules, each school may have different policies, procedures, culture, and expectations. A new student can spend more time adjusting than learning, only to be moved to a different school just months later.

Being the new kid at school every month has a negative social impact as well—without adequate time to create the bonds that lead to lasting friendships, a child in foster care can become isolated, floating from school to school.

Just as children being placed in foster care have unique needs, each foster care home has unique resources and limitations. If three siblings enter the foster care system but there is no one foster home available that can accommodate them all, the siblings will have to be separated.

Losing your siblings (in addition to your parents) can further create feelings of isolation and hopelessness in a child.

Inhibited Development

The environment a child grows up in sculpts their mental, physical, and emotional health for a lifetime. While a safe and stable environment creates a well-wired brain, a chaotic and unstable home creates vulnerabilities that can plague a child for decades.

Beyond the therapy required to treat young people from neglectful and unstable living situations, the Center for Disease Control reports that individuals from such backgrounds are five times as likely to be depressed and have live spans shorted by twenty years.

A Brighter Future

Fortunately, there are ways to help children in the foster care system. Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) who volunteer with Child Advocates are working to help guide thousands of Indiana’s abused and neglected children out of the foster care system and into safe, loving, and permanent homes. These committed volunteers go through extensive training and are sworn in by a judge to act as a voice for the child in court. Child Advocates bring comfort, understanding, and hope to many children who are at their worst.

Child Advocates believes every child who’s been abused or neglected deserves to have a dedicated advocate speaking up for their best interest in court, at school and in our community. To accomplish this, Child Advocates educates and empowers diverse community volunteers who ensure each child’s needs remain a priority in an overburdened child welfare system. These community volunteers are trained and sworn by a judge as Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). When the state steps in to protect a child’s safety, a judge appoints a trained CASA Volunteer to make independent and informed recommendations and help the judge decide what’s best for the child.

For children who’ve been abused or neglected, Child Advocates means having a home instead of feeling lost, and being a priority instead of feeling invisible. According to National CASA, children with CASA Volunteers do better in school, are less likely to be bounced from one place to another or get stuck in long-term foster care. Child Advocates’ vision is to provide an advocate for every child in need in our community. Last year, Child Advocates served over 9,000 children in Indianapolis.

Being a CASA Volunteer for Child Advocates is a life-changing experience that makes our community a better place. CASA Volunteers come from every walk of life and share a commitment to improving children’s lives, a willingness to learn, and an open mind towards life experiences different from their own. Volunteers complete information sessions, background checks and a 30-hour intensive training program including courtroom observation. After being sworn in by a judge, volunteers are appointed to a child or family of children and spend an average of 8-10 hours a month advocating for these children for the lifetime of a case. They get to know the child while also gathering information from the child’s family, teachers, doctors, therapists, caregivers and anyone else involved in the child’s life. Judges highly value CASA’s recommendations which help them make informed decisions in the child’s best interest.